YOUNGSTOWN Be strong but avoid the curse

The author urges women to answer the call to 'move up a level' in their religious life. By GARRY L. CLARK VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER "The Curse of the Strong Woman" by Karen Clark-Green (Calvary Publications). Walking through the valley of hurts and disappointments and coming into light on the other side is the essence of "The Curse of the Strong Woman" by Karen Clark-Green of Youngstown. The author is a singer, actress, choreographer, playwright and director who has developed Archangel Multicultural Performing Arts Ministries here. Clark-Green uses her own life experiences and scripture verses to build a faith-based teaching for women who are struggling in different areas of their lives, be it family, career or faith. "The Curse" as Clark-Green describes it, comes from a woman's misuse of her strength by using it to cover up the pain she feels from past hurts and disapointments -- "The main culprit is that they [women] think they have to be strong, yet they don't know where their strength lies. Being everything "Often as women we bear more than we have to, do more than we have to and try to be everything to everyone," she writes, "We hide our pain in order to endure more pain." Clark-Green writes that the answer lies in recognizing when God is calling upon that person to "move up a level" in their spiritual life. She uses her own experiences as well as vignettes of other women and their struggles with who they are to exhort women to a "higher calling" in their faith. She also takes a no-nonsense approach in telling women that they can be strong and can do anything they are called to do without having to take on a masculinity that does not suit them. In a chapter titled "The Lion and the Lamb," she calls upon women to balance their roles as lion (a more masculine style) and lamb (the more feminine) in today's world. Freely admitting that there are times when a women needs "to be a lion," she also encourages them to not give up their femininity in the process.